When I started down my path of Amateur Radio, I decided that part of the "path" was helping support those organizations which are an active part of the hobby. I looked around and decided on the easy calls - MRA Repeater Association, Richmond Amateur Radio Club (RARC), Richmond Amateur Telecommunications Society (RATS), SouthEastern Repeater Association (SERA), and ARRL. The part that made it really easy is that most of the dues were all very inexpensive ($15 or so...) - except ARRL :)
The RATS club meets in the West End of Richmond which puts it about 15 minutes further away from me than the RARC club - so, RARC became the "default" club for me to attend. It is also the club that I passed my Tech, General, and Extra exams through - well, I guess in reality it was the ARRL VEC relationship with RARC that did the testing.
I have, for all the time I've been in the hobby, wishing to attend a RATS meeting and visit the "other" radio brethren in the Richmond area. I could go on and on (and on and on) about time commitments and other excuses - but I made them and just never took the time to go.
Last night I made it; it was great! I was so glad to meet guys I've talked to many times and put a name to the Callsign :) The other thing I (knew) but only really realized is that I already knew some of the guys at the meeting! I looks like I'm not the only Richmond Ham to have dual membership in the local clubs :)
What a nice way to support the hobby!
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